


Inopportune Times

by GateGremlyn



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-14
Updated: 2012-06-14
Packaged: 2017-11-07 17:14:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/433507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GateGremlyn/pseuds/GateGremlyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coming back from the dead isn't easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inopportune Times

_Coming back from the dead isn't easy._ (An episode tag for _Fallen_ and _Homecoming_ )

~::~

“Doctor Jackson?”

“General?”

“What is it, son? You look like you've seen a ghost.”

“Nothing,” Daniel stuttered and pointed. “I...I remember that.”

General Hammond picked up the picture of Kayla and Tessa. “My grandchildren? This picture's been on my desk for quite a while. I wouldn't be surprised if you remembered it. Of course the girls are older now--”

Daniel stared at the picture in the general's hands. “You were talking to them. On the phone—about a play. When I was.... I was out of phase? I don't even know what that means. Oh, God!”

The general canceled the meeting with SG1. Jack took Daniel by the arm and forced him to sit down with his head between his legs.

“Jack?”

“Keep your head down, Daniel.”

“I remember that I saw giant aliens.”

“Just another day at the office, Daniel,” Jack said, patting his shoulder. “Just another day at the office.”

~o~

Daniel stood with his hands resting on the rim of his small aquarium, watching his new fish swim around. Now there was a memory he could enjoy and appreciate. He'd always had fish in his apartment. He liked fish—and not the kind Jack said weren't in his pond. He liked tropical fish, the kind you had to look after. Fish were calming and restful; fish were exotic.

He smiled at the way he'd decorated the tank. He'd made a piece of outer space from black paper with little stars on it. Then he'd found a small ceramic spaceship which connected to the air filter. When the ship filled with bubbles, it would float about half way up the wall of glass, rising into space, and then empty itself and float back down to land.

“Daniel? Come get your beer. I even put it in a glass for you.” Jack held it out for him to take.

Daniel looked from the amber liquid with the froth at the top to the bubbles bouncing his spaceship up and down in the tank. His fingers tightened on the rim. “Jack? What's Omaroca?”

After the aquarium tipped, Jack helped him clean it up—and bought him some new fish.

The next time Daniel made the tank look an ocean.

~o~

“How could I ever have forgotten this?” Daniel grinned and spun around, trying to take everything in at once. “Are all of these mine?”

“Most of 'em,” Jack assured him. He liked the look of amazement on Daniel's face as he moved to the nearest bookshelf. He scanned the shelf quickly before he pulled a book down and started to read.

“This is ancient Egyptian,” he said in delight. “I'm right, aren't I?”

“Beats me. I wouldn't know ancient Egyptian from ancient Pig Latin.” He looked over Daniel's shoulder. “But yeah, I think that's Egyptian. You can speak it.”

“I can? But no one's heard--” His voice faltered. “I learned it on Abydos, didn't I?”

Jack nodded.

“It's a shame it isn't spoken anywhere else.” Jack remained silent. “It's spoken somewhere else?”

“All over the galaxy,” Jack admitted, “by the Goa'uld.”

The dent in the corner of the book from where it hit the floor was barely noticeable. They called maintenance later that day for a new bookcase.

~o~

“I'm sorry, Daniel. I didn't think. When you said you remembered us, I thought...” Jack, with his back to Daniel, tucked his shirt in to his pants and stood with his head bent. “I'm sorry.”

“No, Jack, it's my fault.”

“It's not your fault,” Jack said turning suddenly to face Daniel who sat on the bed with his pants still undone. “None of this is--” He spit the words out: “Why would you think any of this is your fault? Oma left you with no damn memory. How were you supposed to know... what we were to each other?”

“I remember now,” Daniel said softly. “I remember I had a wife. Sha're.” He said the name slowly. “I told Teal'c I remembered her, but just now I remembered--” his eyes fell to the floor “--other things.”

“They're good memories, Daniel.” Jack finished getting dressed and crouched in front of him, lifting Daniel's head with gentle fingers. “Good memories. Don't be afraid of them.”

“It's not that I'm afraid. But when you touched me, I... I mean I want to, it's just that--” He choked on the words.

“I'm not going anywhere. And this memory,” Jack said as he cupped the side of the beloved face, “will come back, too.”

~o~

The crash set Jack off at a run. “Daniel?” he yelled even before he was even half way through the patio door. Sam and Teal'c were on his heels, but they stayed behind Jack when he put up an arm to stop them. As he approached the sink, he stepped carefully over the plates in pieces on the floor.

“Daniel?” He said it softly this time, hoping not to startle the man staring into the sink. “You okay, buddy?” Warily, he got close enough to see what it was that had Daniel's undivided attention.

It was a knife, an ordinary steak knife.

He'd been out of the deck with the rest of the team, eating steak and baked potatoes. They'd had a couple of beers, laughed and talked, and Daniel had offered to clear the table. “You cooked, Jack, let me get the dishes.” With a grin, Daniel had swept up the plates and the cutlery and gone inside.

“It's sharp,” Daniel said.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. If it weren't for the glassy, unblinking eyes, Jack might think Daniel was making idle conversation.

“A knife,” Daniel added.

“Yeah, a knife. We used them to cut our steak. You can just dump it in the sink.” Jack watched the fingers tighten around the handle. He kept his voice low and calm. “Let it go, Daniel. I'll wash it off, okay?”

“It has blood on it.” Daniel waved the knife around in the sink. “All of them did.”

Jack stepped closer with his hands spread wide. He thought briefly about wresting the knife from Daniel's hand but there was too great a risk that someone would get hurt. He didn't look down, but he could feel—and hear—the crunching of crockery under his feet. Daniel stood, legs apart, leaning on the edge of the sink.

“I'm here, Danny.” Jack felt Teal'c and Carter watching him, not moving or saying anything to set Daniel off, but there. He was glad for their support. “I'm here, you're in my kitchen, you're here with me and Carter and Teal'c.” He was close enough to Daniel to touch him although he still hesitated. Unsure of where Daniel was in his memory--at least he assumed it was a memory, if not one Jack could identify--he didn't reach out. “Do you hear me, Daniel? You're here. At my place. We just finished dinner.”

“I'm here,” Daniel whispered. “I'm... I'm really here.”

“Right. That's right.” Jack nodded even though Daniel couldn't see him. “So drop the knife in the sink and then step back. Can you do that?”

Daniel finally turned his head to look at Jack. “I said it to you before and you didn't believe me.” He didn't release the knife; he held it up in front of him.

Jack shifted on the balls of his feet, ready to jump aside if he had to. He wondered where Daniel had gone that was distressing him. He prodded gently, “What was it you said to me before, Daniel?”

“I said, 'I'm here,' and you thought I was a hallucination. I stayed, but you wanted me to go.”

Jack gasped. “I thought you were-- Shit!”

“Sir?” Carter stepped forward.

“Stay there, Carter.” Jack held up his hand.

“Do you know what he is remembering, O'Neill?”

With a huge sigh Jack said, “Yeah, I remember. It's not like I'll ever forget. But I didn't think Daniel would-- I mean he doesn't remember much about being ascended so I thought--”

Daniel continued as though Carter and Teal'c hadn't spoken. “The knives were always covered in blood. Like you were each time Ba'al put you in the sarcophagus. There was always so much blood. And I didn't do anything to help. You asked--you begged me to help you and I couldn't--wouldn't. You told me that the Daniel Jackson you knew would have busted you out of there and I didn't--I didn't.”

Daniel was almost in tears, but in his anguish he relaxed his hold on the knife. Jack jumped to grab Daniel's hand and shake it loose, letting it drop in the sink with a clatter. Daniel didn't put up a fight; he didn't even notice. He just kept repeating “I didn't, I didn't.” Jack took the hand still in his and pulled gently, leading Daniel away from the sink. He walked him carefully around the worst of the broken dishes and deposited him in a nearby chair. Then he pulled another chair over and sat down so that Daniel could see him.

“You did, you helped.” He took both Daniel's hands in his. “Listen to me, Daniel, you did help. I'm right here.”

“No. No, no, no, no, no.” It was a mantra, repeated over and over as Daniel shook his head.

Jack started to reach up to take Daniel's face in his hands, hoping to get Daniel to see him.

“You did, Daniel Jackson.” Teal'c's booming voice startled everyone. Daniel jerked, but stopped his chanting and looked up.

“You gave us the idea, Daniel,” Sam said. She crouched down beside him and placed her hand on his knee. “We would never have figured out how to help the colonel without you. It was like a rescue plan just... came to us. I've always known it was you.”

“You saved O'Neill's life.”

“I helped?” Daniel asked faintly.

“More than you'll ever know,” Jack assured him fervently.

“Jack,” Daniel asked later as they sat on the back porch eating watermelon, “do I remember jumping out of an airplane?”

“Don't be silly, Daniel.”

A couple of days later, Daniel helped Jack pick out new dishes for his kitchen.

~o~

Daniel tried not to smile. He knew that Janet was watching him, assessing him with her usual medical proficiency, and he knew it was inappropriate in his present situation for him to be smiling, but he couldn't help himself. He decided to be proactive and see if he could head her off at the pass. “It's good to be back,” he told her in all earnestness.

She relaxed and smiled in return. “Yes, well, you need to be a more careful next time or you might not *stay* back. Duck a little faster.” She tugged at the sling hard enough to make his smile fade for a few seconds. “And if I don't give you hell, Colonel O'Neill will.”

Daniel tried to take the threat seriously because, really, it was serious. And Jack was definitely going to chew him out. And he deserved it, no doubt about that either. But still he smiled.

Janet checked the chart sitting beside him, then narrowed her eyes and stared at him. “I don't want you driving; it looks like the pain meds have hit you kind of hard.”

“Fine,” Daniel said without hesitation.

“And I'd like someone with you, at least overnight.”

Because he could see Jack coming up behind her, he decided he should at least make some outward objection. “Really, Janet, it's just a broken arm. I'm perfectly capable of handling--”

“You heard Doctor Fraiser,” Jack said. “You need someone with you--and I'm it.”

Daniel cheered on the inside. “Don't be silly, Jack. It's my arm. I'm going home to my apartment, I'll make a quick sandwich, and I'll head to bed. Nothing to it. I don't need--”

“I just shopped. Besides, I know your fridge; you're probably growing fungus in there. You're coming to my place, Daniel, no arguments.” Jack glared at him until he capitulated.

Casting his eyes to the floor before his face gave him away, Daniel sighed. “Okay.”

“I really think it's for the best, Daniel,” Janet said encouragingly. “I know you've had a broken arm before, but you're on some pretty heavy pain meds and it wouldn't hurt to have someone around for a day or two.”

Jack jumped in before Daniel could say anything. “Good. That's settled then.”

Daniel shifted in the truck seat, wincing a little as his casted arm brushed against the door frame. He hadn't said much on the drive home, afraid to show his hand... so to speak. He ducked his head again to hide the grin.

“You okay?” Jack stretched his right hand out so that it was resting on the seat between them. His eyes darted from the road to Daniel.

“Fine,” Daniel said. “Good, actually.”

Jack looked him over. “You sure?”

“Sure.” Daniel leaned his head against the cool glass. With his left hand he reached out and wrapped his fingers around Jack's. He heard Jack inhale sharply but he didn't move the hand. Daniel tightened his fingers and let the smile linger.

“When did you remember,” Jack asked an hour later, “about us?”

Daniel stretched his legs out under the coffee table, easing sore muscles. As much as he'd played the game and finagled himself a couple of days at Jack's, he was by no means sure of the next step. He'd remembered them, their friendship, their more-than-friendship, only a few hours ago—and as exhilarated as he was, he was nervous as hell. “On the planet.”

Jack pulled away from him. “On the planet? Getting shot at made you remember us? Or was it the explosion--”

“When you grabbed my hand.”

“Grabbing your hand made you remember that you and I were in a relationship.” Jack's words bordered on the sarcastic. “Did it make you think of sex, too?”

“I remembered the sex part in the car on the way home.”

“So that's why you were smiling. I thought it was the drugs.”

“It was the drugs. I was also you. I remembered—remember—you.

“So what, exactly, do you remember about me?” Jack sidled next to Daniel and tried to appear nonchalant.

“I remember this.” Daniel leaned forward. He put his hand around the back of Jack's head and pulled. When they were close he said it again: “I remember... this.” And he pressed his lips to Jack's.

“Yep, I remember that too,” Jack said after clearing his throat. “Do you remember anything else?”

“Little bits and pieces.”

“ _Little_ bits and pieces? Obviously, your memory needs some help.”

“Based on the last few weeks, my memory needs a lot of help. I've remembered things I'm not sure I wanted to know in the first place.”

Jack pulled away. “There's more. You know that, right? And not all of it's good.”

Daniel gave a snort. “By now, Jack, that's hardly a surprise.”

“Daniel?” Jack put such a wealth of questioning into that one word.

“I know. I remember. It's time.”

Daniel tried not to look smug. After all, he'd taken advantage of Jack; Jack ought to make him pay.

All night long Jack made him pay. In full. With interest.

And Daniel remembered.

~::~

 

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to the Web April 2010.


End file.
